![wallace's fruit dove (of course you knew that). Joseph Wolf [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons](https://markavery.info/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/550px-PtilonopusWallaciiWolf.jpg)
Gullick has seen 9000 of the world’s approximately 10,500 bird species – the 9000th being Wallace’s fruit dove. That is quite an achievement but I hope 81-year-old Gullick has added a few other species over the last few months as decisions by taxonomists in (as I picture them) dusty rooms may reduce as well as increase your life list. How awful would it be to lose a few species through some taxonomic lumping?
I’m lagging slightly behind Mr Gullick with a total number of bird species seen of somewhere around 1300. I have to admit that I can’t remember all of them – I sometimes look at a field guide of Africa or Australia and wonder whether that is a species I saw or missed. But that’s fine by me.
I do wonder how many of the 9000 species Mr Gullick can remember clearly. Good for him if they are all crystal clear in his brain.
Don Juan was said to have slept with 5000 women – another rather pointless accumulation of numbers where, perhaps, the details of the individual encounters may well have become rather hazy in the collector’s mind. But in Byron’s version of the epic tale the Don is portrayed as not so much the great seducer but as one susceptible to female seduction – it wasn’t his fault!
Many of us are susceptible to the charm of birds – it’s not our fault!
![The finding of Don Juan by Haidee. By Axagore (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons](https://markavery.info/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Haydee.jpg)
Seeing 9000 species of birds or sleeping with 5000 women! Well if the RSPB used that question to gain members I wonder how successful it would be!
Of course Don Juan ended up in hell according to the legend! Spotting birds is probably the safer bet! I don’t think there is much risk though that I will be catching up with either Gullick or Don Juan, myself!
I’m not sure what I’m more shocked at the number of women ol’ Don slept with or the fact you can’t remember all the birds you’ve seen Mark! I know it’s easy I tried listing on a bit of paper all the birds I’ve seen and it’s easy to let some slip. One tip I got when I first started was to use a pencil to put a “tick” next to the species in the field guide I use.
What I would be interested in knowing is how many of the birds on both your list and Tom’s are no longer around or are on the verge of disappearing?
I stayed with friends on a small farm in Costa Rica which was a hot spot for Three Wattled Bellbird. These birds produce some fascinating breeding and display behaviour and I personally can sit and watch them for hours. Every now and then a 4 x4 would come belting down the track with a bird guide and a group of “listers”. They invariably got the shortest glimse(sometimes only a few seconds) of the bell birds before piling back into the truck and zooming off to another location. Many of the bird guides, themselves find the bellbird a fascinating bird and cannot understand this behaviour from some birdwatchers. One bird guide told me that his clients have refused to pay him because they only saw “X” number of birds . He rates people from the UK as being the worst of his clients for this attitude.
Someone told me that they had been on an Antarctic cruise and one lady spent all of her time playing bridge below decks. She didn’t once go ashore nor on deck to view the scenery. She had said that all she had come for was so that she could tell her friends that she had been to Antactica !!
Bell bird photo here
http://www.flickr.com/photos/48218969@N07/4441100483/in/set-72157623641278868
Cool looking bird, sadly that sort of behaviour isn’t restricted to birders David, Brits abroad are the modern day “invading viking hoard”. One Dutch bloke I was speaking to at Cley said he rather have an army invade Holland then Brits on holiday!
I’m a little but not that envious of the Don or Mr Gullick. I’ve been to a number of European countries birding and to the US for work but managed a couple of days birding in Arizona and Florida on the trip so my life list is less than 1000. I can also remember all the women I’ve “slept” with and its way less than the Don indeed countable on fingers. I can remember all of the firsts, that’s not to say I don’t like new experiences (with wild life only these days) or my partner may get rightly upset but my desire to chase new ticks is not that obsessive. In 2012 I’ve seen two lifers Lanceolated Warbler and Olive-backed Pipit plus Citrine Wagtail as a British tick ( previously seen in Poland). However I’ve had a number of really memorable wildlife experiences with birds, ringing, insects, flowers and companions which to my mind is as it should be.
In Costa Rica they run a christmas bird count in conjunction with the Audubon society. This year one such count on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica recorded 417 bird species in a 24 hour period in an area with a diameter of 24 km.As their are many other habitat types in this country it shouldn’t be too hard to get quite a big list here. http://enchanting-costarica.com/hot-news/christmas-bird-count-record-soars-in-costa-rica-for-2012/
No real ambition to achieve what either of them achieved but suppose if you have to go to hell at least you would be worn out and happy if you were like Don Juan.possibly better for the environment as well seeing as seeing all those birds must have entailed lots of travelling.
Several things strike me about this blog/comments:
a] so far, all the comments are from men [I wonder why!]
b] seeing a bird is definitely not the same as seeing a bird – there really isn’t any point in seeing something if you don’t see it. Wildlife shouldn’t be about a list – thats for trains – it should be a personal experience, then you’ll remember it and no need to keep a list.
c] as just ticking birds is pretty pointless the analogy with sleeping with 5000 women is quite a good one – [although both activities have a certain competitive thrill] . But both quickly become boring if there is no love or passion.
Right now our wildlife needs all the love and passion we can give it – or we’ll all be ticking the clock of extinction.
Stella – good comment, thank you.
Stella,now you mention it we rarely get females who comment on Mark’s blog,maybe you could rustle some up as we would definitely enjoy their views.
Mark, maybe you’re not as far behind the Don as you think. According to the Records Committee (i.e. Leporello) his total is only 2065. Men, eh! But you’d have to go some to beat his 640 in Italy and his 1003 in Spain.
” Ma in Ispagna son gia mille e tre”
I think Byron is on to something, new species of birds definitely seduce me but curiously enough I’ve met thousands of women who haven’t bothered to try! So on the one hand respect to Tom Gullick (who I met once when I was birding in Morocco) and I hope he continues to add to his score for many years to come, on the other hand whats the carbon footprint of a 9000 plus life list? I have to say that for the latter reason I gave up pursuit of a big world list 6 years ago. The other reason was that like you Mark I can’t remember all the 2,500 species I’ve seen, so whats the point. I have to say I can remember all the species I’ve seen in the UK and can’t wait to be seduced by the next one.